Mofaz: PM dangerously interfering in US election

Kadima chairman accuses Netanyahu of scaring public with Iran talk at swearing-in of new MK Dabah, Home Front Defense Minister Dichter.

Mofaz speaks at Knesset 370.
(photo credit:Knesset Spokesman)

Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz on Thursday accused Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu of conspiring to bring down US President Barack Obama, in a feisty
speech at a special Knesset session called to approve the appointment of Avi
Dichter as home front defense minister.

The Knesset voted 41-26 to
approve Dichter replacing Matan Vilna’i, who will leave on Wednesday for Beijing
to serve as ambassador to China. In a Knesset session marked by foulups, Dichter
tried to sit at the cabinet table before he was sworn in, and Knesset Speaker
Reuven Rivlin ended the session without letting him deliver his acceptance
speech, which had already been distributed to the press. Mofaz said that after Netanyahu had tired of interfering in internal Kadima
politics, he had shifted to meddling in the US presidential election between
Obama and presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

“Mr. Prime
Minister, you are trying to grossly and dangerously interfere in the US election
in an unprecedented manner,” Mofaz said. “Whom do you serve and why? Why are you
putting your hands deep in the American ballot boxes? You are playing a
dangerous game that will endanger our children’s future.”

MKs took turns
bashing Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak for the political maneuver in
which they persuaded Dichter to jump ship from Kadima, quit the Knesset, and
join the cabinet as a professional appointee.

“The prime minister is
using Dichter’s good name for a corrupt and cynical maneuver,” Mofaz said. “A
home front defense minister should not be a rubber stamp in the hands of those
planning a hasty attack [on Iran’s nuclear facilities] that has not been
coordinated with the United States. Mr. Prime Minister, you are trying to scare
the public, and the truth is we are scared because you are implementing such
dangerous and irresponsible policies.”

Mofaz said the Home Front Defense
Ministry was unnecessary and had not been given real authority. He mocked
Netanyahu for not finding a minister already in his hefty cabinet to take the
job.

“It seemed there was a reality show called ‘Who wants to be home
front defense minister,’” Mofaz said.

MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima) said
Netanyahu was “acting as if the Time magazine headline ‘King Bibi’ had gone to
his head, but he will be replaced, and so will Prince Barak.”

“Had Mofaz still been in the cabinet, he would have brought
the same appointment at the same time and said the ministry was essential,”
Elkin said.

When Dichter’s resignation took effect on Thursday morning,
he was replaced in the Knesset by the next person on the Kadima candidates list,
Ahmed Dabah, a businessman and former mayor in the Galilee town of Deir
el-Asad.

“I have enormous pride in being part of the Knesset representing
the country where I, my children and grandchildren were born,” Dabah said in his
acceptance speech. “As a former mayor and as a businessman, I have seen the
suffering of residents in general and minorities in particular. I know there is
not much time left for this Knesset, but I will try to change the public agenda
and the political system.”

Dabah, who became the Knesset’s record 17th
non-Jew, noted that “representation of minorities has grown in this Knesset.” He
vowed to “fight for equality and respect for Arab citizens in Israeli society.”